Boone Hospital opens $23 million Nifong facility

New facility expands operations in south Columbia.

The Boone Hospital Nifong Medical Plaza, located in southwest Columbia at 900 W. Nifong Blvd., opened last week. The medical plaza is an 85,000-square-foot, $23 million structure.

Boone broke ground on the project in July 2014. Now, two years later, the new medical plaza is complete and offers primary care and urgent care, as well as a lab, pharmacy and therapy services. The medical plaza also offers state-of-the-art equipment, such as a silent MRI scanner.

“We wanted to design [the facility] in a way that made all services readily available for patients,” says Ben Cornelius, Boone Hospital communications manager. “We think that the easier it is for people to receive health care, the healthier people will be. Our hope is that this new facility will offer people an easy and convenient alternative.”

The hospital’s board of trustees originally bought the 14-acre plot back in 1989. If additional space is needed in the future, the medical plaza will be able to expand into a 125,000-square-foot structure.

Part of the plaza’s development includes a tranquil outdoor experience. In the next few months, a park will be built nearby and will include a memorial pond to honor Molly Bowden, the Columbia police officer who was killed while making a traffic stop near the site in 2005.